What a wonderful fan convention that was ECCC. We attended Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle last year, but this year the cosplay was even more outstanding. The Western Championships of Cosplay was full of amazing looks, of course, but the quality of cosplay out in the hallways sometimes rivaled the contestants. We were fortunate to be able to pick out some of our favorite characters, but we also had tons of amazing cosplayers just show up wanting to get their photo taken. If we could’t fit you in (it was a busy four days), we hope you’ll find us again next year. If we did have you sit for a photo shoot, make sure to download a high-res copy. It’s just dying to become your Facebook profile photo for the next three months.

Here are some of our favorite looks from Saturday and Sunday at ECCC….

People who came back again and again

We had a number of people who dress differently each day come back. This fellow sat for us no less than three times at ECCC. As you can quickly see, he some talent with fabrication. He’s especially experienced at creating items out of fiberglass, which of course looks about as professional as can be. The two swordsmen were some of the most polished cosplayers we saw at ECCC. And one of them is his wife! Kudos to her for her sewing prowess (and patience with his labor of love). Thanks to everyone who came back for more!

Cardboard Knight

This fellow made this entire suit of armor out of cardboard. He really maximized what you can do with cardboard and rivets (very smart use of corrugated cardboard in spots). The details are very impressive. If you zoom in you can see the finger greaves. You can even see his eyes peeking through, which is a testament to our photographer Michael’s attention to detail.

Mad Max Family Time

This family sat for us last year for a few different cosplay looks, and they came back this year with a stunner. The entire family joined in to create a Mad Max group that was easily the most impressive of any Mad Max themed cosplay we saw this year. All of them are amazing, especially the “Immortan Joan” look. Thank you @coregeek, @emmy__jonesy, and the rest!

The Vikings

This couple is driven by this guy’s obsession with vikings. Not just the TV show The Vikings. He’s into all things viking, and boy does he know his stuff. We spotted his shield from far away and knew we had to have them pose for us. Turns out he built this shield the way the original Vikings used to. It’s covered in canvas, which helps keep the wood from splitting when hit by swords and spears, and the entire outside is made out of rawhide that is super hard and reinforces the entire shield. He told us all about it, including how he couldn’t find the right materials he wanted so he went and bought tons of dog chew toy rawhide, soaked it to make it a little more malleable, and then formed it and set it on the shield. Resourceful — just like a viking.

Barbarian

This imposing fellow sounds as loud as he looks. Actually, much louder. He turned heads everywhere at ECCC with this barbaric cosplay. His spittle-flying lunges at our camera were frankly awesome. It was a real pleasure to have him pose. He’s a real expert. Does it for a living, in fact. Nice bear head, bro!

Hell Messiah of the Cenobites

Hellraiser is horror canon, so you always expect to see at least a few people doing one of the iconic looks from the movies. But we don’t think anyone has done it quite this well. This fellow also sat for us more than once. In fact, he showed up for photos four (five?) times during the four days. Sometimes he would wear two looks per day. That’s commitment! We’re a fan of all of his looks (which you can find in the Cosplay Gallery), but this Cenobite interpretation is probably our favorite of his many cosplays.

Steven Universe

One thing I find interesting about the rising popularity of cosplay — and of fan conventions themselves — is that it’s occurring during the rise of both superhero movies and this new Golden Age of Television. You’ll see all kinds of cosplay inspired by both animated and live action TV, and this Steven Universe character was well done — and she really went for the poses we asked her to take.

The Flash

We like how some cosplayers go for alternate looks of characters. Sometimes those are alternate comic book story lines and sometimes they are conceptual interpretations. This alternate Flash was interesting and different, but what really blew us away was his enthusiasm for Pixlr. He’s a long-time user and we loved hearing about his experiences with our apps. Front of the line, @titancosplay. Your flattery is welcome here.

Princess Mononoke

Some of the cosplay we see is through the roof with details and looks like it took weeks or even months to make. But we’re also really impressed by people who do simple things really well. It only takes three or four of just the right pieces using the right colors and details to make stand-out cosplay — especially when the person who embodies the character really believes in it. This Princess Mononoke was understated but also outstanding.

Pixlr Staff of Power Photo

We definitely have a favorite of all the photos we took at ECCC. To us, our favorite photo is the last one we take — our staff photo. This time around, we had a smaller staff than we did at C2E2, but the photo turned out just as epic as that last one in Chicagoe. We admit it, we’re biased to choose this one as our favorite. Even though we try, it’s impossible to be completely objective when judging cosplay. And it’s completely impossible to not pick this photo as our favorite because we felt the same rush that all the other cosplayers who had their photo taken at our booth this week felt. When our expert photographer Michael poses you and makes you reach for that last 5% of emotion when you think you’ve already given 100% percent, and you step down from your pose and see how epic you look on a big 55-inch screen that’s broadcasting your photo to the entire convention — well then it’s going to be your favorite photo no matter what. Thank you, Michael, for your amazing work, and thank you to everyone who sat for a photo shoot!

We’re big fans of Beat Down Boogie on YouTube. If you’ve never checked out their YouTube channel and you like seeing amazing cosplay, you should probably visit and subscribe. The Beat Down Boogie team goes from event to event around the country capturing the best cosplay looks at each fan event. It’s a labor of love for them, and they have a lot of fans around the world. In fact, we wanted to congratulate them for passing 600,000 followers this past week. That’s huge!

Of course, going from event to event and paying for hotels and food and everything else that’s involved in capturing it all isn’t free. Labors of love sometimes require benefactors, and we’re proud to sponsor Beat Down Boogie and help them keep their video fun train rolling. Check out their most recent video from the Chicago event a few weeks back, which was just released in the past few days:

Thanks for the shout-out at the end of the video, Micah! We hope you had as much fun as we did at C2E2. We can’t wait to see your Emerald City Seattle video when it’s done.

We’re proud sponsors of Cosplay Championships around the country, including this week’s Emerald City Comic ConWestern Championships of Cosplay. These cosplayers are engaged in a race of one-up-manship that just keeps getting better every year. We’re fortunate to get access to the contestants right before they walk into the judging room, which gives us some time to ask them about how they made or conceived of their costume. We have a gallery of photos of all of the contestants at events.pixlr.com, but we wanted to congratulate the Best in Show, 1st place Western Champion.

Congratulations to Allie Rose-Marie Leost (@allierosemarie on Instagram) with her amazing portrayal of Warcaster Allison Jakes. The armor and construction was impeccable. Super colorful, totally bad-ass weaponry, and overall a very complex look. What really stood out was the “smoke” exhaust that emitted from her back. That kind of detail is always impressive. We salute you, Alley Cat Cosplay!

We’re fortunate to be capturing some the best cosplayers at Seattle Comic Con this week. If you’ve followed Pixlr long enough you know we started taking photos of cosplayers at fan conventions a few years back. Just a simple photo booth and a camera and some enthusiasm for learning more about cosplay construction. Since then, as our enthusiasm has grown our setup at fan conventions has evolved and gotten better each time. And so have the photos. We have a whole big bunch of them on our Cosplay Gallery, and here are some of our favorite looks from Thursday and Friday at ECCC:

Skyrim Family

This Skyrim family was at #ECCC for their very first cosplay. Holy cow! Pretty amazing for a first time. It’s hard enough to create one amazing look, but they did three — one for dad, one for daughter, and one for son. Best first timers we ever met. Well met, indeed. Thanks for posing for us!

The Dark Crystal

Remember The Dark Crystal? You don’t always see deep Jim Henson cosplay, but we actually saw a few Henson-focused cosplay looks at ECCC that were pretty darn great. People who do Henson cosplay care about the details and they have a real artistic bent. This one was definitely a winner. This kind of voluminous costume can be hard to capture, but our photographer Michael has a way with posing people. Epic.

Princess Mononoke

These two creative souls took the idea of forest spirits from Princess Mononoke and went deep. And then went deeper. Still deeper. We love this kind of conceptual cosplay that takes an idea of a character and interprets it in a wholly unique way. We worship you, spirits.

Edward Scissorhands + Topiary Guy

Everyone loves Edward Scissorhands. He’s one of the most unique fictional characters ever created and he’s completely, wholly original. Our photographer found just the right pose to make this one stand out. The topiary he’s trimming is actually a fellow in a full bush costume who worked in tandem while they walked the floor at ECCC. Talk about original. One of the best cosplay teams we’ve ever seen.

Marceline the Vampire Queen

We see a few Marcelines from Adventure Time at cosplay events. It’s a popular costume, but this one really stepped up and posed wonderfully for us. She nailed the spirit of the character and gave it a nice edge.

Snake Eyes from GI Joe

This man in black really was enigmatic. We have no idea what he really looks like underneath here, but what we saw in this Snake Eyes was pure bad-ass. Capturing all-black costumes can be tough, but this one uses a lot of light to make all the surfaces shiny and the creases and folds stand out. Great pose and some great editing to bring out the mystery of this always mysterious character.

He-Man

We saw this He-Man last year at ECCC and caught a quick photo, but this year he really stood out. Thanks to him for sitting for a longer photo shoot to capture this classic “I have the power” pose. Replicating the look of a movie poster or in this case the intro to the cartoon is always a good idea.

Thor and Captain America

Two great tastes that taste great when they clash. We love this classic versus pairing, and they both completely went for it with their poses.

Journey

Have you ever played Journey? It’s one of the most artistic video games we’ve ever seen. We won’t spoil it for you, but it’s a simple but subtly profound game that’s sure to surprise you. This cosplayer surprised us with a simple but elegant costume that we’ve never seen anyone cosplay before. Beautiful.

Captain Phasma

We loved this first-rate First Order commander, Captain Phasma. The way the light reflects off of this costume is remarkable. The gun, the gloves, the helmet — everything is spot on in this one.

Those are our favorite ten of the bunch, but favoritism is always subjective. Exercise your subjective muscles and take a look at the rest of the batch in our Cosplay Gallery.

Free photo shoots for cosplayers

As always at these fan conventions, we’ll be offering free photo shoots for cosplayers. We’ll have a photo wall set up near the Atrium Lobby (next to the Peace Bonding station), and we’ll be grabbing some of the most creative cosplay we see. If you want our professional photographer Michael to capture your hard work and creativity, please stop by and tell us you heard about it on the Pixlr blog. We’ll no doubt be very busy, but if you’re a blog reader we’ll do our best to get you on our list.

Building up the Cosplay Gallery

Each day of ECCC, we’ll take the best photos of each shoot and upload them to our Cosplay Gallery at events.pixlr.com. These are high-quality, fully downloadable images that anyone can flip through and enjoy (and download). We’re almost certain you’ll find something amusing and fun in this gallery, so go check it out!

Championships of Cosplay

We’re proud sponsors of the ECCC Western Championships of Cosplay, which means we get first crack at photographing all of the entrants. It’s one of our favorite parts of these fan conventions, and we hate to break it to anyone who lives in Toronto, New York, or Chicago, but Seattle may be our favorite fan con for cosplay creativity. There’s just something about the creativity of people in the Great Northwest that seems to result in stellar cosplay. And last year someone proposed marriage during a photo shoot. We’re hoping they’ll be celebrating their first anniversary this year. Heck, why don’t you two come on by for another photo.

Can’t make it to Seattle? You can follow us on Instagram for a few choice shots. It’s the fan con lite lite lite version of attending.

We’ve been profiling some interesting Instagram artists lately, and this time around we want to introduce you to Priska Wettstein. “Hotel owner and part time picture taker” as she describes herself, she is a social media artist from frosty Dawson City in Yukon, Canada. Coveting ravens, arctic scenes, and wild nature held within a painted, dreamlike atmosphere, Priska’s work will not disappoint. In addition to her intriguing composition and artistically edited works, she sometimes includes thought provoking quotes, phrases, and poems as part of her work. Priska’s stunning use of color and texture will pique your imagination. It’s a feed full of considerable inspiration.

Priska is the owner of the Aurora Hotel (think Northern Lights). Referred to by Priska as the Land of the Midnight Sun & Aurora Borealis, Dawson City and its surrounding area have been featured in well known literary works by such writers as Jack London (some of his most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang), Robert W. Service (known for poems from his book, Songs of a Sourdough) and Pierre Berton (writer of Canadian History). Pierre Berton’s childhood home in Dawson City is also a well-known writer’s retreat. Judging from her work, it seems fitting that Priska Wettstein, hotel owner, artist and writer, is part of this frostbitten landscape. She pulls unusual beauty from it regularly and shares it with the world.

Easter is a time of hope and rebirth. And bunnies! Easter is probably the cutest holiday, so we thought we’d add some cuteness to Pixlr this week. You’ll find a new pack of borders, overlays, and stickers in the web and mobile apps that are pretty heavily focused on tweeting birds, adorbs bunnies, and flowers, flowers, flowers. Maybe Spring hasn’t quite sprung where you are, but in our neck of the woods March feels like it’s about to go out like a lamb. Sunny skies and warming temperatures. We’ll leave these packs in the app through Easter Sunday — and a few days beyond.

We’re proud sponsors of the Champions of Cosplay events at ComiCon conventions like ECCC, NYCC, and this time around C2E2 — the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. We love the creativity people show by meticulously crafting their costumes, so it’s really a no-brainer for us to sponsor these events. They make a lot of creative people very happy.

As we’ve seen over the past few years, the competition at these events has become fierce. The C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay is the largest cosplay competition in the world, and this weekend was the final stop in ReedPOP’s 2016 “Quest for the Crown” global cosplay competition circuit. So, yeah. Lots of impressive contestants from around the world.

The Winner!

Huge congratulations go out to @msmajorsam from Australia for her amazing fabrication of her Sakizo Julietta Necromancer cosplay from Fantasy of the Dream. It’s a deep manga character that really only exists in drawn form, so the character is open to quite a bit of interpretation. She showed incredible attention to detail in this cosplay, with skulls, horns, and all manner of papery, gauzy, colorful details. It’s undeniably beautiful and a great choice in what must have been a really difficult judging process. The talent in this competition really was spectacular.

To get an idea of the other entrants, check out our Cosplay Gallery for the Championships of Cosplay. As sponsor of the event, we were given early access for photo shoots before the judging, and as always it was a true pleasure to talk to each person and find out more about how they make the things they make.

Each day we attend a Comic Con event, we like to gather up our favorites of the day and celebrate those people who were excellent at both posing for us and displaying their cosplay fabrication talents. Boy, was Saturday a busy day. We had a line outside our booth of people who wanted to get their photo taken, and just by looking at the Cosplay Gallery for Saturday, you can see why. Our photographer, Michael, is in absolute top form. He’s playing with dramatic lighting to make these photos as epic as they can be. Here’s a few standouts….

Rick Grimes

The Walking Dead is pretty popular these days at cons. The dead just keep coming. When this fellow showed up at our booth with a bag full of weapons and a uniform, we were worried we had done something wrong. We seriously thought he was real law enforcement for a few seconds. Totally sold it and blew us away with his quick posing skills.

Legolas

Solid elf cosplay here, and he was excellent at posing down to the smallest detail. We took a lot of these photos because he was so good. These two were our favorites (among many).

Obi-Wan Kenobi

We wanted to make sure this Obi-Wan got a great shot out of posing, so we asked him to do a number of things, including letting us toss him his lightsaber to get a force pull photo. Thanks for not minding on the first try when we missed and it clattered to the floor! Second time’s the charm.

Destiny

We really love it when someone takes a genre or a game character and adds their own interpretation to the cosplay. This Destiny character has all kinds of color and flair — and he posed for a lot of athletic shots.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

We’ve seen a lot of great Yu-Gi-Oh cosplay, but it really works great when the dude who is playing it has abs of steel. Great enthusiasm in helping us get some dramatic lighting poses in.

Man at Arms

Top-shelf He-Man cosplay here. This guy had the mouth to back up the cosplay. A nice cartoonish bad-assery costume.

Destiny Warlock

Destiny guns and art design details are some of the absolute best out there, and it’s hard to make into a strong costume. Most of it has to be pretty high quality or the whole thing falls apart. This helmet and gun and everything else was spot on. Worthy of the franchise.

Thor

We immediately recognized this Thor as someone we had seen previously at NYCC. She was a standout Loki in New York, and we were thrilled to make her acquaintance again in Chicago. Thanks for joining us again for a photo shoot! You look fabulous. Again.

Hawkman/Nightwing Combo

How many feathers does it take to make a very full and realistic set of wings? According to our subject here, about 600. All dyed the same color, which isn’t as easy as it seems when you realize that “water off a duck’s back” is a saying with some science behind it. Truly outstanding cosplay here. And a fearless willingness to scream on cue.

All this weekend, we’re taking photos of cosplayers at C2E2 in Chicago. And just as we have in past cons (and in past years) we’re adding photos of our favorite cosplayers to our growing Cosplay Gallery. What’s different about C2E2 than other cons? Well, the people are just so gosh-darned nice. Where New York Comic Con is brash and confident, and Emerald City in Seattle is creative and coy — Chicago is shy and polite. The cosplayers we met formed their own line at our booth, patiently let us pose them into all kinds of crazy formations, and were pleased as punch with the results. So are we. And it’s only Friday! Here’s a few of our favorites from the first day of C2E2….

Kim Jong-un & Nathan Drake

We saw a lot of groups of friends who showed up in sometimes wildly disparate cosplay, and one of our favorite groups included these two guys. We don’t know why anyone would choose to cosplay Kim Jong-un, but then again that guy lives in his own alternate universe and probably considers himself a superhero. We captured him kicking back with a Coke and a smile.

The Joker

We see a lot of Jokers at cons, but the best ones stand out when their makeup stands out. This fellow was the right combination of blood and comics. Not too much like the campy old version and not too far into Heath Ledger territory. A good balance.

Akatsuki

A great team of cosplayers can make a big impression, and this trio were kind enough to pose for us in all kinds of ways. Great teamwork.

Deadpool

There are a lot of Deadpools out there. It’s one of the most seen in the cosplay universe. It’s also a costume that’s not always done so well. But this one is pretty great. Tailored to the nines, this fellow brought his Deadpool A game. And even some swords that most definitely weren’t sanctioned for C2E2 (real swords!). Appropriately non-conformist all the way. Nicely done!

Captains America

We saw a whole lot of pretty great Captain Americas today, including one with an Ironman helmet on a pike. But we saw two who went in different directions that were equally awesome. One is an Avenger’s style and one is old school WWII style. Excellent attention to detail in both.

Batman trio

We saw so many great groups of cosplayers today, and we particularly liked this group because they were ready to camp it up for the camera. One of many good photos they posed for that were all about the facial expressions. Thanks for all the mugging!

Jedi Rey Man

Hands down the most popular cosplay this year? Rey from Star Wars the Force Awakens. You might expect that, but did you expect a dude cosplaying as Rey? Another unexpected detail here was his weapon. It’s a pretty massive 3D printed affair that he says took about 55 hours of printing time to make. Holy cow. That surprised us, too. Serious props for this 3D printed prop. Nice craftsmanship.

Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon is pretty hard to pull off. You basically have to create something that covers the entire body, and it has to be full-on hair or fur — and you have to make a Quadruple Barrel Shock Rifle. That looks good. Huge amount of work!

Family Time

We absolutely love it when we see families and friends team up for a group cosplay. These folks took what they had on hand and made something fun. And they were aces at posing. It’s not always about technical skill when it comes to cosplay. In fact, it’s often about pure play.

Usagi Yojimbo

Full masks really make you do a double take. They are a combination of creepy and beautiful and hide the cosplayer almost completely, making the character seem, well, more like the character you see in your imagination or mind’s eye. This Usagi Yojimbo was pretty flawless in its detail and the mask was top notch. Beautiful.

Predator

We’ve seen a few Predators in our time, but wow. Just wow. This guy has made probably the best Predator we’ve ever seen. He’s holding the skull and cape of a dismembered Superman. Batman vs. Superman sounds interesting, but Superman vs. Predator sounds off-the-charts amazing. Someone make that movie, please!

Those were our favorites from day one of C2E2, but you can pick your own favorites in our Cosplay Gallery. We’ll be adding more all weekend. If by some chance you’re in Chicago and at C2E2, please come by and visit. We love taking photos and learning more about our users.